1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a reliable unattended, automatic security method and corresponding apparatus for effectively detecting and preventing intrusions in multiple platform computing environments by using a computer host system for authentication and access control with respect to a local system.
2. Background Art
The modern workplace often involves interchanging of information through a communications medium. To participate in this interchange, one usually goes through a credential verification that takes place over this medium. The verification process often involves a comparison of a User ID and a record in a repository associated with that User ID. If the medium or the repository is vulnerable to comprise then extra steps must be taken to preserve security.
Most security systems have User ID authentication and authorization requirements built into the host system. By permitting desk-top Internet access from multiple-platform computing environments, a new generation of security risks has been created as a consequence of highly motivated, highly skilled outsiders or hackers who often seek to break into a system. Accordingly, what is needed to combat both new and prior security risks is a new generation of host and network based intrusion detection tools that are capable of performing an effective unattended automatic security function to detect and prevent entry to and compromise of multiple platform computing environments from unauthorized intruders who deliberately try to misuse the system.
In contemporary multiple-platform computing environments, there are multiple authentication repositories that are responsible for authenticating users. Such repositories can be files in a file system that contain a user's ID, a registry key within the registry of the operating system, or a remote database on another computer from which a user is verified. However, and as far as is known, there are no authentication repositories that have proven to be invulnerable to every possible attack.